The aim of this article is to present the conception of an ubran agglomeration and that of a metropolitan area in geography and physical planning as approached by Polish authors. Special attention ia paid to relations holding between those conceptions, which are consdered in terms of the morpological and the functional structure of a large city.

The paper discusses the settlement patterns of Polish immigrants in Manchester as an exemplification of the changes in the understanding of place and spatially rooted identity in the last 50 years, namely its shift from the modern understanding of place as being closed and limited to the postmodern one, which can be understand as being open and consisting of networks. The paper is based on a study carried out in Manchester in the period 2005–2009 on two groups of Polish immigrants: Poles who had settled there after the Second World War and immigrants who arrived there after Poland joined the European Union.

The utilisation of accessibility potential models is widespread in geographical studies of transport. A problem emerges, however, when these models are applied in that their inter-pretations and results may result in some difficulties and ambiguity. In order to eliminate this problem, we have developed a method which is convenient for breaking down the accessibility potentials into four univocal elements. This article analyses the features of these factors and the interrelationships of their spatial development patterns by using the example of the EU NUTS3 regions.

The demand for air services is analysed using a methodology based on catchment area designation by driving-time zones (time-wise accessibility by individual car transport). Calculated for the zones in question were: absolute and relative demographic demand, absolute economic demand (number of businesses within a particular catchment area) and relative economic de-mand. The study suggests four variants where demand is concerned, according to existing and planned locations, as of 2008 and 2015.

The Russian accession to the WTO will have remarkable effects on the CIS countries. This state of affairs is strongly related to trade issues, because Russia plays an important role in each country's trade. Countries' present WTO status allows the impact of the Russian accession to the WTO to be predicted. As Russia is still using the non-WTO-conforming GOST standard, it is essential to compare that with the WTO's SPS measures. The WTO accession has pros and cons for Russia, but the already ratified Russian accession package demonstrates that pros be-came stronger.

This article seeks to reconstruct organizational and ownership changes affecting Polish enterprises in inland shipping since 1990. On the basis of data from various sources (above all the Polish Registry of Ships and Bulletins of Public Information), it was possible to determine the degree of advancement of the transformation processes affecting shipping companies, these first and foremost denoting privatization and partial communalization, as well as organizational changes. A particular kind of dichotomy is observable in that, while most newly-arising enti-ties are small private shipping enterprises created as former state-owned enterprises have been divided up and their vessels sold to new owners, the systemic transformation plus Poland's EU accession have also given rise to the conditions underpinning the emergence of Europe's largest shipowners (the Odratrans group), the latter dealing with carriage by barge along inland water-ways, including beyond Poland.

In the literature on the subject, urbanisation is regarded as one of the most impor-tant factors shaping electoral behaviour. The effect of this factor has also been corroborated by studies in Poland, where one can speak of urban- and rural-oriented parties. To determine the significance of the urban electorate in Poland, use was made of the procedure of backward elimi-nation of voters in the successive biggest towns. The next step involved identifying the structure of support for the leading presidential contenders in the 2010 election at each stage of the rank elimination of the towns. It was already in the parliamentary elections at the start of the 21st century that big cities and the larger of medium-sized towns turned out to be their 'engines': with their highest voter turnouts, they crucially affected the results at the national scale. That is why an analysis was made of voter alignment in towns of this size category over the years 2001-2007, and on this basis various electoral types of towns were distinguished.

The major dimensions to socio-spatial disparities in Warsaw are discussed, in relation to the pre-1989 situation, the study using data from 2002 National Census enumeration areas, for which PCA was carried out. The factors shaping the socio-spatial structure of Poland's capital are seen to have become similar to those observable in Western European cities, the key dimensions underpinning existing differences connecting with family or socio-economic status and social marginalisation. That said, spatial structures that evolved earlier are seen to have manifested marked inertia, not least with the classification of census areas pointing to similarities between individual units, not only as regards the prevalent character of buildings, but also where the time of construction is concerned. The inflow of new residents (including students) into Warsaw has represented a significant dimension to the differentiation, but has not generated any important changes in the capital's social space. In essence, the twin processes of transformation and metropolisation are found to have reinforced yet further disparities which had been discernible earlier, without any visible reshaping of their spatial distribution.